Sports
Hockey

Eagles kicker Alex Henery kicks the game winning extra point against the Ravens as Eagles punter Chas Henry holds during NFL action in Philadelphia in 2012. The league is looking at moving the extra-point spot back to the 25-yard line. (Tim Shaffer/Reuters/Files)

The NFL isn't booting the extra point, but the league announced a radical proposal Wednesday to make the kick much longer.

Instead of snapping the ball from the defensive team's two-yard line, the conversion try would be snapped from the 25 -- making it a 43-yard kick.

Teams opting to go for two points would still snap the ball from the two-yard line.

This rule is one of 21 proposals the league's owners will mull over next week at their annual meeting in Orlando. Thirteen involve playing rules, seven are by-law amendments and one is a resolution change.

This past season, kickers missed only five of 1,267 conversions, a failure rate of just 0.4%. And four of the five were blocked, St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher, a leading member of the NFL's competition committee, said on a league conference call announcing the proposals.

The New England Patriots suggested the conversion-kick change. Head coach Bill Belichick has been a vocal critic of the now practically automatic extra point. He has said if the kick is not made to be more difficult, then just give teams seven points when they score touchdowns and kill the point-after.

At least 75% of owners (24 of the 32) must endorse any rule, bylaw or resolution change.

If the extra-point rule passes, and conversions are kicked from 43 yards out, how often will we see them missed? Maybe more than you think.

Last season NFL kickers were successful on 83% of field goals from 40-49 yards out. Probably they were slightly more successful in the shortest part of that range, say 85% on 43-yarders. If 1,267 conversion kicks are attempted in 2014 from that far out, at that rate 190 would be missed.

Many misses surely would decide games.

"There's that thought that with the extra point, maybe you need to add a little more skill into it," Atlanta Falcons president and CEO Rich McKay, chairman of the competition committee, said on Wednesday's conference call.

Fisher added that it is possible a separate proposal, irrespective of the one above, might be passed for the preseason only, wherein all games in one week this August would see conversions snapped from 20 yards out, rather than from the 25.

Placekickers made a record 86.5% of their field goals in 2013, including 67.1% from 50-plus, another record and an unfathomable success rate a generation ago.

The Patriots proposed three other rules changes. One would extend goalposts by five feet, up to 35 feet. Another would mandate NFL-operated cameras on all sidelines, end lines and goal lines, to supplement TV images for replay reviews.

Probably the least likely to pass of the Patriot proposals is one allowing coaches to challenge any official's decision except scoring plays and turnovers. This is another old saw of Belichick's.

It would mean judgment penalties could be challenged and overturned, such as pass interference and holding, all of which are currently impermissible.

Coincidentally, the Canadian Football League is mulling whether to allow coaches' challenges of defensive pass interference, for calls and non-calls alike. The CFL's competition committee is set to vote on it Thursday night.

On the NFL's conference call Wednesday I asked McKay if the NFL ever has considered making pass-interference penalties reviewable.

"We have considered that before," McKay said. "We have always shied away from review of penalties, for the most basic reason. Which was we didn't want to put the referee in a position of using his subjective judgment on a play in place of the on-field official.

"We always thought that the intent of replay, when replay was put back in in 1998, was to deal with plays where there was an objective standard -- there was a goal line, there was a knee down, there were two feet down. Whatever that objective standard may be.

"We have not gone down that path but we have discussed it numerous times."

VICK TO VISIT JETS: Michael Vick plans to visit the New York Jets Friday, according to reports.

The veteran quarterback is one of the highest-profile free agents yet to find a new team. Buffalo and Oakland were reported last week to also be interested in the fleet lefty's services. The Bills and Jets probably eye Vick as a backup, for their sophomore-QBs-to-be, EJ Manuel and Geno Smith.

BORTLES 'SOLID': Central Florida QB Blake Bortles had his pro day Wednesday, and did not disappoint as Teddy Bridgewater did two days earlier.

"I thought it was really solid from every perspective," NFL Network's Mike Mayock said. "(He has) a really good arm. I wouldn't say elite, I'd say really good ... What I saw out there is he's potentially a franchise quarterback."

EXTRA POINTS: Panthers QB Cam Newton's ankle surgery was incident free, and his recovery time is indeed four months, the club said ... Free-agent RB Maurice Jones-Drew reportedly has a visit lined up in Pittsburgh ... DT Henry Melton, formerly of the Bears, signed with the Cowboys, who hope the ACL he tore in September heals fast enough to allow him to return to Pro Bowl form this season ... RB James Starks re-signed with the Packers ... The Titans signed WR Marc Mariani but cut longtime PK Rob Bironas.